Fanfic: The Secrets That You Keep (Doctor Who)

Title: The Secrets That You KeepAuthor: twitchbellFandom: Doctor WhoRating: Teen Characters: Eleventh Doctor; RoryPairing: background as canonSummary: Rory reacts to the revelation about Amy.Word count: 542Warnings: noneSpoilers: Doctor Who Series 6. Set between 'The Rebel Flesh/The Almost People' and 'A Good Man Goes to War'.Author's Notes: Missing scene.

"Amy?"

Rory's voice is small, and the word is tiny, but he fills it with every particle of anguish, incomprehension and fury he has in him.

"That wasn't Amy."

Rory tears his gaze away from the white gloop on the TARDIS floor and looks up at the Doctor. He's standing very still, and the expression in his eyes is infinitely old and full of shadows.

"So how long have you known? How long have you let me believe that was my wife, that –"

"Only the consciousness was Amy's. And now I've given it back to her."

"You didn't answer my question. How long have you known?"

Rory takes a step closer to the Doctor. There's a wave building inside him, crashing against a locked door, and the door won't hold much longer.

"Rory ... oh Rory, I had to be sure." The Doctor's trying to be gentle with him, Rory knows this on some level. But it doesn't help. It only makes it much, much worse.

Rory covers the final space between himself and the Doctor without any kind of conscious thought, coming apart under the weight of memories and emotion. "You kept it from me. She's the woman I love and you kept it from me, you utter, fucking bastard!"

His fist bunches, strikes out hard. The Doctor makes no attempt to avoid it. The force of the blow against his face slams him back against the console, his fingers scrabbling to find a purchase. Rory's hit him before. He remembers that other time now, how the Doctor goaded him and then sprang back, laughing in delight at the way Rory-the-Auton had outgrown his programming.

The Doctor doesn't laugh this time. His lip has split and there's blood on his face as he hangs onto the console. He's closed his eyes and for a long time he says nothing. Rory nurses his fist in his other hand, wanting very much to hit him again and trying to fight the impulse if only because he needs the Doctor to find Amy and their child, so pissing him off isn't the smartest thing to do.

But when the Doctor finally opens his eyes, and levers himself off the console, he doesn't look pissed off. He looks resigned, like he knew he had it coming. And knew he deserved it.

"I could say I'm sorry." He massages his chin and then stares at the blood on his fingers. "And I am sorry. But that won't make it any better, will it?"

"You screw up people's lives," Rory says, flat and hard.

"Yes. The flip side to this." The Doctor waves a hand that takes in the TARDIS and all it represents. "The dark side."

"Your dark side."

A tiny muscle in the Doctor's cheek twitches. "That too. I will fix this, Rory. I will. I promise."

And are your promises worth any more than your apologies? Rory doesn't ask the question, but he knows the Doctor hears it just the same.

"So now what?"

"Now ... " The Doctor raises his head and there's a light in his eyes, a dark, unholy light that Rory's seen in the faces of warriors behind the locked door in his mind. "Now we go to war."